149 EIGHTH ECHORE

. The girl from Four is stately but not hostile. The girls from One and Two and the boy from Four are obviously not Career material, Blade can tell that much from just looking at them. But the other three seem to be trained Careers, from the way they're holding themselves and reacting to the news about the Games.

He immediately hates them, these spoiled brats whoOften he's thought about what he does, and if it is in fact right, and a small part of himself cringes every time he flies into a rage and destroys some evil force in Six, but the rest of him knows he can never stop. Because this is his purpose, his passion, the thing that consumes his every waking moment. And it won't end with the Games, no. It will only intensify, Blade realizes with grim determination, if he wants to kill the President and die as a martyr.